A parent and child visiting Okinawa from Kyoto Prefecture discovered an eel in a river in Nago City.
The Churashima Foundation Research Center’s animal research group confirmed the eel to be a Mindoro snake eel and this was the first time this species was recorded in Japan.
The proposal for the eel’s Japanese name is kawa-umihebi. This species of eel is rare, Okinawa is the sixth location where it has been discovered, and the northernmost. The findings of the research have been published in the academic journal Fauna Ryukyuana.

Authors

Shin-ichiro Oka, Nozomi Hanahara, Tetsuya Shintani (Bold Letters: Churashima Foundation Staff)

Title of paper

First Japanese record of the Mindoro snake eel Lamnostoma mindorum (Actinopterygii: Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae) from the Ryukyu Islands

Title of Journal

Fauna Ryukyuana

Links to journal

http://w3.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/naruse/lab/Contents_J_files/42-2_Oka_etal.pdf